The TST Member Tournament Play Thread

[billchao]

I won the net division of the match play tournament. Yesterday was the semifinals and my opponent conceded the round to me on the 2nd hole because he knew he would be unavailable for the final today. I got lucky there and got a bye into the finals. We did end up playing our match as an exhibition and I would have lost. It was the worst round of the tournament for me and I think knowing that the match didn't matter might have been a factor. I'll write up a blog post about the whole experience at some point.

Today I won, 3&1. My opponent and I halved the first three holes much to his credit. I was striping it and he just kept scrambling and hanging in there. We both blew up on the par 3 4th hole but I ended up taking that one by holing an 8-footer for double bogey. I went up 2 after he put two in the penalty area on #5 and promptly gave that hole back by putting my tee shot into the penalty area on #6 by a foot. It's important to note that most of the penalty areas on this course are deemed environmentally sensitive areas and we are not allowed to enter or play shots out of them. So even though I physically was able to play a shot from where I was on #6, I could not, by rule. I followed that by winning #7, making a 25' birdie putt and finished the front 9 3 up after he had some bunker trouble on #9.

I went up 4 by winning #11 (we both sucked on that hole but he missed the putt to halve). On #12 we both hit the green with our tee shots. He hit his first putt past the hole and I lagged mine inside of 4' with an uphill putt for par. His putt for par was too long again, just inside of mine but definitely outside of gimme range. I gave him that one for bogey. I felt at the time, being 4 up, that I didn't want to win the hole because he ends up missing a 3-footer and fourputted or something. I wanted to win the hole by making my par putt. I did not. He probably would have made the putt anyway (he's not me after all, and he made everything in that range all day) but it seemed like the sporting thing to do at the time. He was genuinely surprised I gave it to him, butI felt good about it. Then it almost bit me in the ass as he started to mount a comeback. We halved #13 after he made a great up & down and he took #14 with a long par putt. He also won #15 with a 5' birdie putt. We halved #16 with a pair of bogeys after he put his tee shot in the water and I missed a 4-footer for the win. We got to #17 and I was still 2 up. He hit his tee shot just off the back of the green to an extended apron area short of the back bunker and I put mine on the green pin high but 30' away. He was actually closer so I played first and hit it within a foot for par. He didn't hole out for birdie which sealed the match and ended up making bogey on the hole.

With the pressure off, we both played the par 5 #18 well. He played it as a three shot hole like a normal person and hit it to 8' and two-putted for par. I striped my drive and ended up with a downhill lie to an uphill approach like 180 yards out and gave myself the green light to go for it in two. Thin hooked it into thick rough to the left of the green with a bunker in between and hit a high flop to 4', probably my best shot of the day. Made the birdie putt.

[bkuehn1952]

Spent Monday-Wednesday playing in our club’s Match Play competition. There were only 44 participants. We wanted everyone to be able to play the 3 days so we had five flighted 8-man brackets and a 4-man mini bracket where each player played the other three bracket members with the winner having a 3-0 record or several withI 2-1 records (not clear how ties were broken). Non-winners on Day 1 went into a 4-man consolation bracket. Non-winners on Day 2 played a 1 round net stroke play mini tournament (20 players).

I was one of the fortunate players to survive the heat and three matches to win his bracket (2 & 1, 3 & 2, and 1 Up).

Last time I played in a formal match play event was the 2017 Newport Cup where I got my butt kicked by @phillyk. Of course, despite the whomping I took, the right team came out on top. 😉

Edited June 21 by bkuehn1952

[GolfLug]

So last weekend was our annual two man best ball (two round net total for flight honors + a cross flight shootout tournament -  Schaubach Cup) tournament. It was a tale of two rounds.

On day 1 my partner and bestie Pete (15.5 hcp) totally ham and egged to shoot a tourney best 58 - four shots clear of our next flight competitor team. He shot a career best 79 coming out with 5 straight pars while I fought my driver. I finally found my swing on the 6th hole and birdied three holes on the back side all of which I was stroking to pick up three net eagles. We basically played our our minds. It's amazing when driver/wedge/putter all workout. On the same day. 

Day 2, as often happens ended up being a different story. We couldn't get much done with greens drying out to lightning fast (12 stimp) and shot a net 70 to finish 4 shots outside of making it to the playoffs. Good news was our flight leader won winning everyone in our flight $300 each. 

In summary, except for the first four of the five holes, I have never driven the ball better and ecstatic that my putter made me a few bombs. Wedge was as good as I can control one in the pesky 55 to 85 yard range. Of course, all of this was day 1. Day 2 wasn't terrible but made no birds and had three three-putts...and my partner played like he had blown his load on Day 1. Heh.

Another team shot 59 to beat us by a cumulative 4 shots. Came in 2nd. All in all was a great weekend.

[klineka]

Won a 4man scramble charity tournament on Saturday with a winning score of 54 (-17) to win by 1 stroke. Normal 4man scramble rules plus each player got 1 mulligan, 3 of us used our mulligans but 2 guys used it on the same par 3 which resulted in a par anyway. Used mine for a 2nd attempt at a wedge shot on our last hole and it was worth it there as it brought us about 5 feet closer and another guy buried the putt for eagle.

I eagled our second to last hole on my own, shorter par 5 and I cut the corner leaving 138 in after the tee shot and hit my gap wedge to a foot for tap in eagle. 

My last 7 drives all went 290+ and in the fairway so I was very pleased with that. 

Won a free round at a country club in the area which I haven't played before so looking forward to playing that later this year.